


It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

by MeganMoonlight



Category: Donald Strachey Mysteries (Movies)
Genre: Canon Gay Relationship, Case Fic, Gen, M/M, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 14:24:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13526163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeganMoonlight/pseuds/MeganMoonlight
Summary: It was one of those cases Don would always remember, not only because of how did it end, but also because of how it started.





	It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

‘It was a dark and stormy night…’

That was how many horror stories started, but Don never was much into those. ‘Supernatural’ and ‘unexplainable’ weren’t really a part of his vocabulary, since his job was based on finding evidence that couldn’t be questioned. That was why he didn’t believe in cases that could not be solved. Sooner or later he always found out what had happened, well, at least until one case that Kenny had described as ‘some really strange shit.’ It was one of those cases Don would always remember, not only because of how did it end, but also because of how it started.

***

A printed letter Don found stuck under the door to his office one afternoon described a situation he heard about quite often: a woman concerned that her husband was cheating on her wanted Don to find out if her suspicions were correct. The woman, Ann Jenkins, provided a lot of information about her husband: where he was working, how he was usually spending his time off , and also provided a picture of her husband, Mark. It seemed like a simple case.

After reading the letter twice, Don put it on the desk and picked up the envelope. A simple white envelope, not signed, and he didn’t notice any creases on it. It looked like someone didn’t want to leave any traces. Examining the paper again, he wondered who would want to make sure the letter was so neat, when a loud sound of thunder startled him.

“Damn it,” he murmured, shaking his head. He hated thunderstorms.

Making sure he didn’t miss anything important, he picked up the envelope once again.

“And? What do you think?”

Don glanced at Kenny, who walked up to him and leaned against the edge of the desk, and was about to answer, but then he noticed what time it was.

“Oh, crap.”

Getting up quickly, he put the letter and the envelope in the drawer of the desk, right on top of the folder containing documents about his last case.

“What’s the hurry, boss?”

“I have to get home,” Don answered, putting on his coat. “I promised Timmy I’d come home earlier today.”

“And the letter?”

“I’ll think about it tomorrow. You can try to find out as much as you can about the husband, if you want to.”

***

All the thoughts about the strange letter left Don’s mind as soon as he saw Timmy, who was arranging plates and glasses on the table, with his sleeves rolled up and a satisfied smile on his face. He was gorgeous.

“Hi, beautiful,” Don said, stepping closer to Timmy. He wrapped both arms around his husband’s waist before pressing a gentle kiss to his neck.

“Hello, Donald,” Timmy turned around, never leaving Don’s embrace, and brought their lips together in a sweet kiss. Don just smiled against his mouth. “The food is almost ready.”

“Can I help with anything?”

“It’s fine. Go change and I’ll bring wine.”

After dinner they ended up on the couch, watching one of Timmy’s favorite movies. Don had one arm wrapped around his husband, rubbing his shoulder and neck slowly. From time to time he pressed a kiss to Timmy’s other shoulder, which made Timmy smile every single time. 

Only later, when Don laid in bed, Timmy’s head pillowed on Don’s shoulder, he remembered that he forgot to take the mysterious letter with him. But, well, it wasn’t something that couldn’t wait until the morning, Don thought, kissing Timmy’s head gently and closing his eyes.

***

Don didn’t get a chance to look at the letter again until he closed the case of a missing necklace for Mrs. Danvers three days later. It wasn’t anything particularly complicated or time consuming, but Mrs. Danvers was so happy to get her jewelry back that she paid him a bit more than they had agreed on. As the woman and her sister left the office, Kenny, who was still smiling as he closed the door, sat down on his chair and propped his legs on the desk.

“Another good day, and another satisfied customer,” he said, clearly proud of himself, and Don snorted at him.

“The weather could be better though,” Don answered, running one hand though his still wet hair. “Hey, do you remember where I put the letter you gave me a few days ago?”

“The creepy one?” Kenny frowned. “In the top drawer, I think?”

Don indeed found the letter in the drawer, but as soon as he picked it up, he heard a loud, booming noise of thunder. It sounded like it wasn’t going to stop raining anytime soon.

“That’s just great,” he muttered to himself before walking up to Kenny. “So, what do we know about the husband?”

“Well, the guy is sixty seven, apparently, and looks like he really likes his job or something, because he works in the same school for the last twenty six years.”

“Did you find anything suspicious?”

“Well, working in the same place for so long is pretty suspicious to me, but there is something else. Look at this,” Kenny leaned back in his chair and took out a few sheets of paper from one of the bottom drawers of his desk, then handed them to Don. “According to what I’ve found out, Ann Jenkins died three years ago.”

“What?”

“I’m wondering what’s going on, too, but, yeah. She’s dead.”

Don scratched the back of his neck, looking up from the first document, frowning. “Who brought the letter, then, since it wasn’t actually Ann Jenkins?”

“No idea. As far as we know, Ann and Mark Jenkins have no children. Mrs. Jenkins had no siblings. Mr. Jenkins’ brother is dead, too.”

“That’s…”

“…creepy?” Kenny finished for him and Don just shrugged, because all of it really was a little bit… unsettling.

Usually he would just dismiss a case like that. Too many things just didn’t add up, the letter alone was suspicious enough, and for all he knew all of it could have been a joke, but he had to admit, he became a little bit curious after what Kenny told him. And since the case of a missing necklace was solved, he did have time to look into this.

“So, what are we gonna do about this?”

“We’re going to find out who brought the letter and why they pointed out Mr. Jenkins’ marriage when his wife is dead.”

***

As it turned out, Mark Jenkins liked his routine. He was working for eight hours from Monday to Thursday, after work he usually took a walk that lasted about half an hour, sometimes he talked to his neighbors, and went shopping. However, Don had been following Mr. Jenkins for twelve days and hadn’t seen anyone visiting the man at all, not even once. Kenny confirmed that the man had no living relatives, but it looked like he also didn’t have many friends. Mr. Jenkins didn’t talk to his co-workers much, too, which made Don even more curious. The sender of the letter had to know Mr. Jenkins and his habits quite well to notice him supposedly meeting someone, but who could the sender be, considering that Don hadn’t noticed anyone paying much attention to the man? And who could be the mysterious person Mr. Jenkins had been meeting with, according to the letter? Maybe that person wasn’t a big part of his life anymore?

Don still had no idea what to think about any of this.

He wrapped the jacket tighter around his body to shield himself from the cold wind and rain, but it wasn’t helping much. He really hated working when it was raining. He was about to walk away from the display window he was pretending to look at and call Kenny, but then he noticed Mark Jenkins leaving his house.

The man looked at his watch and started walking towards the nearest flower shop that was still open, which was unusual, since he never left his house after 7 PM.

Don decided to keep following the man, wondering what was going on. He sent a quick text to Kenny, and later also to Timmy, to let him know that he would be home a bit later than he expected, and focused his attention back on his target.

After about an hour they reached a cemetery. There wouldn’t be anything strange in that, but as Don found out, the man didn’t visit the grave of his late wife. Mark Jenkins was standing in front of a birch tree, almost completely hidden from view by the nearby bushes. He started looking around slowly, as if checking if someone was observing him, before he placed a single tulip on the ground, quickly covered it with fallen leaves, and then left in a hurry, never once looking back.

Well, that was worth of looking into.

***

It turned out, as Don found out from Bub Bailey a week later, the man everyone thought was Mark Jenkins was actually his twin brother, Trent. Trent had killed Mark and stole his identity about a decade earlier. He was also responsible for killing Mark’s wife, who had found out the truth three years earlier. For almost a decade Ann Jenkins had been convinced that her husband had left her for someone else, because Trent, pretending to be Mark, had wrote a letter in which he informed her that he had moved to Europe. No one knew why Mrs. Jenkins never tried to find him nor had filed for a divorce, and it looked like they might never find out the truth. 

Trent told Bub everything he knew, and that was enough to sentence him, but there were many aspects of the case that still needed explaining. Don decided to leave that to Bub, though. And to think that there had been a chance that no one would have found out about the crime if not for a single letter…

When Don left the police station in the evening, it was raining again. He promised Bub to bring him the letter that had started all of this the next day, because he really wanted to get home earlier. He felt like he could sleep for at least ten hours straight.

When he told Timmy about the case later, his husband seemed to be as shaken by the story as Kenny had been.

“He had killed his brother? And his brother’s wife?”

“Yeah. He was jealous, or at least that’s what he said. They never got along, and Mark had a stable job that paid more or less well, a nice house, and people liked him.”

“That’s just… awful,” Timmy shook his head and Don wrapped one arm around his waist, kissing his shoulder gently.

“It is. At least he’ll pay for it now.”

“I can’t believe no one noticed that it wasn’t really Mark,” Timmy laid down in bed, covered himself and Don with a comforter, and sighed. “People he worked with really didn’t suspect anything?”

“Apparently not. Bub will talk to them later, but Trent knew what he was doing. Even if they weren’t close, he knew his brother enough to impersonate him.”

“Good thing you found out what had happened,” Timmy looked at him, snuggling against his side. “And where is this letter now?”

“I left it on my desk. We still have to find out who left it for me.”

***

However, the next evening, when Don entered his office and was ready to bring Bub the letter, he found it, as well as the envelope, gone. Kenny, who came to work a half an hour later, said he didn’t touch anything in Don’s office, and suggested they search for it together.

“Maybe you left it somewhere else?” Kenny tried, looking under the desk and behind the cabinets, while Don was slowly going through everything in the drawers of his desk.

“No, I’m sure I left it on top of the folders,” Don took out a stack of papers from the first drawer and sighed, when he didn’t find what he was looking for. “I was supposed to take it to Bub today. He wanted to check it for fingerprints.”

“I don’t know, maybe you took it there already and just forgot about it, or something?”

“Really?” Don glanced at his assistant, who just shrugged, before he sat down on the floor, sighing. 

“What? I’m just checking. Seriously, first letter appears out of nowhere, then it disappears? Just like that? What, like it’s some sort of a horror movie or something?”

This time it was Don who shrugged. He honestly had no idea how to explain all of this. Not knowing what to say, he just sat down in his chair, looking out of the window. It was still raining.

‘It was a dark and stormy night,’ indeed. Now he started to understand why it was such a popular introduction. 

But now, how was he supposed to tell Bub that the letter just disappeared? That would be a very interesting meeting.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Round 22 of [Smallfandomfest](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com/) for the prompt: Donald Strachey Mysteries (movie), Donald/Timmy - _"It was a dark and stormy night."_
> 
> It's not my best fic, I know, but as soon as I saw this prompt I wanted to write something for it. I also know it's not actually focused on Don/Timmy, but, well. I tried. I really need to practice writing case fics... 
> 
> I really hope it's not too bad. Let me know what you think!


End file.
